BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

I have some of the same things this woman does. And because I have been diagnosed as physically disabled 18 years (NOT MY "CHOICE"!!! either) some people comment on how well I "adapted" and "cope" because I'm giving them the impression "it's no big deal"... Well IT IS A BIG DEAL... it cut my living a decent productive life off at the knees... in my 30s !!! From the great site: BUT YOU DON'T LOOK SICK! __________________ Lately I’ve been getting the impression from some of my friends that maybe my growing list of chronic illnesses is no big deal. No one is actually coming out and saying these words, but that is definitely the feeling I’m getting. This point could be debatable. Maybe they think that. Maybe I’m projecting. But this is how they are making me feel, so right now this is my reality. And it’s fine really. I know that no matter how much education I do or how much awareness I try to bring, I am neve...

from PhysOrg.com People who have the common chronic pain condition fibromyalgia often report that they don’t respond to the types of medication that relieve other people’s pain. New research from the University of Michigan Health System helps to explain why that might be: Patients with fibromyalgia were found to have reduced binding ability of a type of receptor in the brain that is the target of opioid painkiller drugs such as morphine. The study included positron emission tomography (PET) scans of the brains of patients with fibromyalgia, and of an equal number of sex- and age-matched people without the often-debilitating condition. Results showed that the fibromyalgia patients had reduced mu-opioid receptor (MOR) availability within regions of the brain that normally process and dampen pain signals – specifically, the nucleus accumbens, the anterior cingulate and the amygdala. “The reduced availability of the receptor was associated with greater pain among people with fibromy...

by Renee Martin The personal narrative is something I have avoided, because the naked honesty also leaves one extremely vulnerable to attack. Living in a marginalized body is difficult enough without showing one’s war wounds, but when it becomes clear that hiding is only enabling the complete erasure of people who look and function like me, then it is time to speak out . You see, I am fat, Black, female and differently-abled. I can never completely be at home with any one of the labels that best describe me. In the media, I can see Black women, or even fat black women, but fat and differently abled are definitely categories that are understood to be mutually exclusive. A body like mine contradicts the mainstream social discourse. Fat activist groups like NAAFA (The National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance) have worked hard to promote HAES (Health at any size). NAAFA’s goal is to build “a society in which people of every size are accepted with dignity and equality in all a...

By Lisa Copen (excerpts) "I don't understand why you won't at least take his phone number; he's a Christian and he specializes in herbal remedies. He could heal you and then you could share his success with everyone and that could be your ministry…" I was standing in the buffet line at a special dinner for committee members of an international revival that had come to town. Some would go as far to say that those attending this dinner were the who's who of local women in ministry, and I was proud to be among their company. Despite their involvement and leadership in ministry, however, this group of women was healthy-bodied and provided many examples for me to share about how, as a church body, we can increase our awareness and understanding of those who live with chronic conditions. When one committee member asked why I was appointed as the disabilities coordinator I shared a few words about my ministry. She in turn asked me what drugs I was on because ...

by Toni Bernhard, J.D. The Stigma of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome I've been sick since 2001 when I failed to recover from what appeared to be an acute viral infection. It has left me mostly house-bound, often bed-bound. In effect, I've had the flu without the fever for almost ten years: the aches and pains, the dazed sick feeling, the low grade headache, the severe fatigue. It cost me my career as a law professor; it cost me the ability to be active in the lives of my children and grandchildren. Because I meet the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) case definition, I've been given the diagnosis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). Although there have been some promising developments (a possible connection to a retrovirus; the presence of unique proteins in the spinal fluid of CFS patients), as of this writing, there's no proven cause and no cure. This is not surprising, given that so little money is allocated for research into this debilitating illness. Why? One reason i...

In 1995 I was working hard at a large, "white shoe" corporate law firm. They had offered me manager training and I said no. The politics at this place were such that if you weren't a "yes" person - you didn't get anywhere. Sorry, I am not a "yes" person. I had re-entered counseling after 10 years of infertility treatment had yielded yet no results. My marriage was circling the bowl. I not only didn't feel like a woman - I felt like nothing. I buried myself in work. I became the go-to person the partners or most demanding lawyers would call to help with whatever cases they were on. I worked evenings so when most people were on their way home, I was on my way to Wall Street. I worked in a dark, airless office. My work was highly detail oriented and often very sensitive & confidential in nature. It started slowly. And I kept attributing my symptoms to something else. Allergies, stress, PCOS. The metallic taste in my mouth, the buzzing in ...

This information was, in my opinion, so important for EVERYONE who has EVER been bullied -- whether as an adult or a child, online or off... verbally or emotionally abused, teased, put down, invalidated, smeared or slammed -- I am putting it here on my personal blog. I have, far too often, heard people I think should know better say -- "PTSD just PROVES [that person] is mentally ill." PTSD is NOT Mental Illness -- it is Psychological Injury. When we start to remove the stigma -- more people who need treatment & support will get it. If John McCain had become President? We'd have had a man in the White House who has PTSD. Think about it. Common features of Complex PTSD from bullying People suffering Complex PTSD as a result of bullying report consistent symptoms which further help to characterize psychiatric injury and differentiate it from mental illness. These include: Fatigue with symptoms of or similar to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (formerly ME...

By Salynn Boyles The mysterious chronic pain condition fibromyalgia is widely thought of as a woman's disease, but new research suggests it is also common among men with posttraumatic stress disorder. In a study of male Israeli war veterans, half of the men with combat-related PTSD also had the tenderness and pain characteristic of fibromyalgia. The findings were reported today in Berlin at a European rheumatology meeting. There is a growing body of research linking posttraumatic stress and chronic pain, but the Israeli investigation is the first to limit its study population to males. "A consistent relationship has been seen between PTSD and chronic pain conditions like fibromyalgia," says psychologist John D. Otis, PhD, who is also studying the link. "The fact that the pain is often independent of the traumatic event leads us to believe that there is something else going on." Pain and Trauma While the cause of fibromyalgia remains unknown, the conditi...

by Kent Holtorf, MD -- ImmuneSupport.com I found this out 15 years ago when trying to get a diagnosis other than " its all in your head " for the reason I was: paralyzed at the time on the left side, unable to eat, in excruciating pain that defied words, unable to walk more than 2 feet without falling over, and running a fever that would not go away. When a doctor who knew what she was talking about looked at the already done CAT scan and blood work? My diagnosis jumped out at her. She was appalled that it was missed but not surprised. Other doctors? Dismissed it as nothing simply because they didn't understand it or were uninformed. Because they were uninformed? stupid? unwilling to deal with a chronically ill patient? pressured by the insurance companies to get rid of chronically ill patients? or all of the prior?   A question that is often raised by patients is “Why doesn’t my doctor know all of this?” The reason is that the overwhelming majority (all b...